The present invention concerns hand-held label dispenser and applicator apparatuses designed to dispense photograph-mounting stickers that are adhesive on both faces thereof, adhesive marking labels that are adhesive on one of the faces thereof, or other such adhesive elements that are adhesive on at least one of the faces thereof, from a supply of such adhesive elements adhesively arried on a carrier tape, and furthermore designed to apply such adhesive elements to photo-album pages or to photographs, to documents, cartons, or to other such workpieces.
West German Pat. No. DE-PS 2,116,984, commonly owned, discloses a hand-held dispenser and applicator apparatus for dispensing, for example, photo-mounting stickers that are adhesive on both faces thereof and applying them to the backs of photos or to photo-album pages, for mounting photos in such albums. This is likewise the area of chief concern in the present disclosure, although self-evidently analogous singly- or doubly-adhesive elements can be dispensed and applied within the scope of the present disclosure.
In the apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned West German patent, an adhesive-element-bearing carrier tape is guided over a deflection or peel-off edge, the adhesive elements becoming peeled from the carrier tape and then, by means of an applicator roller, being applied to the workpiece. This applicator roller also serves to effect transport or feeding of adhesive-element-bearing carrier tape when the applicator roller is rolled across the surface of a workpiece. Of disadvantage is the fact that exact positioning and application of the adhesive element to a predetermined location on the workpiece can be successfully performed only if the user of the apparatus has had considerable practice. The same applies to the hand-held dispensing apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 2,569,140, in which it is furthermore a disadvantage that adhesive elements can be applied only to a smooth workpiece surface, inasmuch as the transport rollers for the carrier tape can only be driven by frictional engagement of the roller against a workpiece.